CO2 floods, ROZs changing nation’s energy, economic landscape

Updated 9:47 pm, Saturday, December 10, 2016

Operators are taking the foundations of the enhanced oil recovery technology and applying them to residual oil zones — oil left behind after long-ago natural waterfloods swept it away from the Permia

Operators are taking the foundations of the enhanced oil recovery technology and applying them to residual oil zones — oil left behind after long-ago natural waterfloods swept it away from the Permia

Photo: Courtesy Photo

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Operators are taking the foundations of the enhanced oil recovery technology and applying them to residual oil zones — oil left behind after long-ago natural waterfloods swept it away from the Permia

Operators are taking the foundations of the enhanced oil recovery technology and applying them to residual oil zones — oil left behind after long-ago natural waterfloods swept it away from the Permia

Photo: Courtesy Photo

Image 3 of 3

Operators are taking the foundations of the enhanced oil recovery technology and applying them to residual oil zones — oil left behind after long-ago natural waterfloods swept it away from the Permia

Operators are taking the foundations of the enhanced oil recovery technology and applying them to residual oil zones — oil left behind after long-ago natural waterfloods swept it away from the Permia

Photo: Courtesy Photo

CO2 floods, ROZs changing nation’s energy, economic landscape

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For decades, oil and gas operators have coaxed more oil and natural gas out of the ground with enhanced recovery methods such as waterfloods and carbon dioxide (CO2) floods.

Those efforts will only result in the nation’s energy independence, but will greatly reduce CO2 emissions from the power sector, said Vello Kuuskraa, president of Advanced Resources International.

Addressing this week’s annual CO2 Conference’ Carbon Management Workshop in the Education Room at the Midland Horseshoe, Kuuskraa said the country has about 824 billion barrels of conventional oil in place. Primary and secondary waterflooding recovery has produced a third, leaving approximately 414 billion barrels in place. Much of that is technically recoverable, he said.

With CO2-enhanced oil recovery projects, he said there is the potential to recover 28 billion to 81 billion barrels of oil.

“Whose oil will be left in the ground?” he said.

Between carbon capture, utilization and storage and CO2-enhanced oil recovery, Kuuskraa estimated that 80 billion barrels of conventional oil will not be imported to the United States but will left in the ground of other countries.

While that is impressive, “what’s changed is what ROZs have added,” he said.

Operators are taking the foundations of the enhanced oil recovery technology and applying them to residual oil zones — oil left behind after long-ago natural waterfloods swept it away from the Permian. Operators are finding this oil underneath existing fields and in fairways between fields.

Several projects are developing these zones in the San Andres formation to the north, centering on 12 counties that include Andrews, Dawson, Gaines, Terry and Yoakum counties. The fairways hold as much as 198 billion barrels of oil, and the zones beneath existing fields hold another 42 billion barrels, according to Kuuskraa.

“It’s a very large in-place resource,” he said. “You have to sort through and put aside the lower-quality part, look at the higher oil saturation and thicker pays.”

He said when producers flood these ROZs, “it looks very much like conventional pay after a waterflood.”

Operators also are turning their attention to ROZs in the Grayburg, which Kuuskraa said is smaller.

He told his audience it’s important to note the economic benefits of these developments. These projects could generate 12 billion to 37 billion metric tons of economic demand for CO2. Kuuskraa estimates that power generators could receive as much as $70 per metric ton of CO2 generated by their plants.

“We’re short of CO2,” he said.

Not only could power generators benefit, but state and federal treasuries and the overall economy would benefit, he said.